Irish Soda Bread

Any good recipes? I have a recipe I have used in previous years but maybe there!s a better one out there. Have the buttermilk,raisins,baking soda,etc. All set to go tomorrow.

This one makes a moist bread and you make it in a bread pan:

3 1/2 cups flour, 2/3 cup sugar, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp soda, 1 tbsp baking powder - mix that together & take a scant 1/4 cup and cover 1 1/2 cups of raisins (I soak mine in a bit of Jamison's for about an hour)

2 eggs (lightly beaten), 1 1/2 cups buttermilk, 4 tbsp butter - mix together

add wet to dry, mix in raisins, put in loaf pan and bake at 375 degrees for an hour.

baked?! Mine used to be panfried on the stovetop, like a slow-braised pot-roast.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/213827/real-traditional-irish-soda-bread/

Pretty much this recipe, which an Irish pen friend taught me 30+ years ago.

(We had it in a big circle, cut into wedges)

There are two schools of thought on this, interpretations or authentic. Most recipes you find are interpretations, these contain eggs, sugar, dried fruits, etc. Authentic contains only flour, salt, baking soda, and buttermilk.

If you're looking for uber authentic, this site has some recipes.

http://www.sodabread.info/menu/

As far as "authentic" goes, remember that even corned beef and cabbage is not a traditional Irish meal, but rather one invented here by Irish immigrants using what ingredients they had available. Similar to the story of chop suey in Chinese cooking.

I ended up going with a very basic recipe mashed together from a few different (but very similar) recipes I found. It came out really good.

2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups cake flour (NOT self rising)*

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

16 oz buttermilk**

Preheat over to 450

Mix dry ingredients

Add buttermilk, you may not need to use all 16 oz so keep an eye on it

Mix

Shape into loaf and put on a lined baking sheet (I don't own a dutch oven, so I went with the regular baking sheet method)***

Cut an X into the top

Bake for 15 minutes

Turn the heat down to 400 degrees

Bake for an additional 20-30 minutes, or until it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom

* The reason for the cake flour is that soda bread used to be made with "soft" flour, going with a lower protein flour helps approximate this

** I never buy buttermilk, I add lemon juice to milk and allow it to sit. I've never tasted the lemon juice in the finished product, but if you're worried about that then I'm told you can also use white vinegar to sour the milk. I'm sure real buttermilk will work out just as well as my hacked version did

*** If you do own a dutch oven and want to try baking it in that, I don't have any advice, you'll have to google and see what temp and how long to bake it for.

I'm gonna try this one.

joanne said:

baked?! Mine used to be panfried on the stovetop, like a slow-braised pot-roast.

allrecipes.com/recipe/213827/real-traditional-irish-soda-bread/"> allrecipes.com/recipe/213827/real-traditional-irish-soda-bread/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> allrecipes.com/recipe/213827/real-traditional-irish-soda-bread/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> http://allrecipes.com/recipe/213827/real-traditional-irish-soda-bread/


Pretty much this recipe, which an Irish pen friend taught me 30+ years ago.

(We had it in a big circle, cut into wedges)

Thanks all. Spontaneous' recipe seems more like what I'm looking for.

Just a word of warning, unlike the butter and/or egg added versions, the original version will go stale FAST. Wrap any uneaten bread tightly, and don't expect it to last you for a few days.

This is the version we like,without the butter and eggs. Just slather on the butter after baking. Don't worry,this is quickly devoured.